Friday, 3 May 2013

In my kitchen - May 2013

Kitchens tell stories. That is why we love to peek inside. While I don't seem to have many fancy foods in my kitchen lately, I still have food and stuff to share with you.

In my kitchen are reminders of my mum and dad who have headed off on holiday this week. Above are apples and lemons from my mum's trees. I am thinking about cooking the apples but still not sure what to do with them. I am glad to be able to use some of the lemons while my parents are away, particularly as our lemon tree is not being very productive right now.

In my kitchen are badges. My dad's contribution to the kitchen is the Collingwood Football Club badge. Strangely enough he could only find Collingwood badges and not my nominal team, The Cats. Sylvia is not as steeped in football culture as her cousin Cooper. She thought the magpie on the badge looked like an emu.

The other badges are an ANZAC badge bought for ANZAC Day, an old Alice in Wonderland badge bought from the Potter Gallery and an old protest badge from the days of George Bush, John Howard, David Hicks and Guantanamo. I don't know how the Gitmo badge is still around and I wish I could find the Domestic Goddess badge that used to be blu-takked on the wall.

In my kitchen is a whole kent pumpkin. I usually buy it is wedges. It is hard to get a sense of size from the photo. For those who are wondering, I guess it is about as big as my head. Half of it has gone into lasagne. Perhaps the other half will become soup.

In my kitchen is a new set of electric beaters. My old beaters died recently. Well they were misbehaving. They had trouble turning off. And no one wants electric beaters whirring away when they shouldn't be. I went down the street and bought the cheapest beaters in the shop. For a mere $24. Not as pretty as my old ones. (I am not keen on the black look!) I hope they last as long. They come with dough hooks. I've never used dough hooks before and wonder how effective they would be on such cheap beaters.

In my kitchen are the dishes. Always. Piled high. Our poor dishrack has seen better days. One of these days it will just collapse. I think our dishwasher feels like that sometimes. (Sorry for all those dishes, E.)

In my kitchen are my keys. I constantly lose them. Despite my best attempts at finding them a regular spot. Last week I lost them. I could remember the last time I had them. I looked in that bag. E looked in the bag too. We looked everywhere else. In despair I looked back into the bag where I last had them. There they were.

In my kitchen is rhubarb. This is the rhubarb that went into my stewed rhubarb. The colour is so pretty. I liked it so much, when I finished it I bought stewed some of the last plums of the season.

In my kitchen are masks that Sylvia and I decorated at the art gallery on E's birthday. They relate to an exhibition of masks by Aleks Danko. Apparently he wanted them to be coloured in with only black and red. Fortunately Sylvia loves red because it is so close to pink. Can you spot the house and the monkey she drew on her mask?

In my kitchen is a pairs game with characters from Playschool. I used to watch this tv show when I was a kid. It is amazing that it is still going. Noni, Lorraine, Benita and John are replaced by Justine, Karen and Alex. It still remains fairly true to my memories and I still want to do all the crafts that they do. Sylvia loves playing Snap with the Playschool cards. Often we play a game after dinner before she goes to bed.

In my kitchen is a small pot of basil that I bought from the supermarket. It is small enough to fit on the windowsill. I've remembered to water it regularly. The bunch has lasted almost 2 weeks and I still have some basil. Far longer than it ever lasts in the fridge. I will definitely buy it this way again.

In my kitchen is a lovely pumpkin bread. Actually the last dried heel of it went into the food processor for a nut roast. The bread is from the Rustica Sourdough stall at the Fitzroy Market. It is a great new addition to the market but between markets they can be found at the Alexandra Parade end of Brunswick Street.

In my kitchen are balloons. Not the kind you blow up (though we probably have a few of those around). These are meant to decorate a cake. Sylvia and I were in Cake Deco in the city before meeting my friend Jane at Gekkazan@GPO. We were late because Sylvia left her bag of little and tiny things in the shop and we had to go back for it. She is besotted with her balloons. They are just dolly-size.

I am sending this post to Celia for her In My Kitchen series. Go there and peek into other people's kitchens.

I always feel cozy when peeking into your kitchen, and this month is no exception. Your whole pumpkin is impressive - like you, I have only ever bought the Kent variety in wedges - and I sympathise with your beaters going down an unpredictable route. I used my old set with one beater for a very long period of time, and then they only worked on the low setting, and in the end I bought new ones - also for the grand price of $24 I think! I'll be interested to hear if your dough hook does function well enough for bread.

Thanks Kari - I have bought a whole kent pumpkin on a few occasions before - it feels very decadent to have a whole pumpkin - so many possibilities. Will let you know if the dough hook is a raging success but will be surprised if that is the case and I suspect I might just forget about them and find them years from now and wonder what they are :-)

AS a recent baker of sourdough, I'm rather smitten by that pumpkin loaf! It looks really lovely. I have two sourdough doughs proving in the fridge now-I wonder if I could press some pepitas on their sides? :)

Johanna, always so many interesting things in your kitchen! The rhubarb looks so delicious and rosy, and I've always known those pumpkins as Jap pumpkins - is the kent a variation, or something completely different? I'd be hesitant to try mixing dough with your new beater - I find even my Kenwood stand mixer struggles with it - and yes, I can see the monkey! :) x

Thanks Celia - I think I use jap pumpkin and kent pumpkin interchangably. I have noticed that what I used to think of as jap pumpkins are more often called kent pumpkins now. And thanks for the advice on the dough hooks - I may try them with a really soft dough but I suspect you are right - they wont have too much power for a stiff dough

Thanks for dropping by. I love hearing from you. Please share your thoughts and questions. Annoyingly the spammers are bombarding me so I have turned on the pesky captcha code (refresh to find an easy one if you don't like the first one)

Search Green Gourmet Giraffe

About Me

Recipes and reflections in which our vegetarian heroine dreams of being tall and graceful as a giraffe; being a goddess in the kitchen; and being gladdened by green gadgets, green food and green politics because green is the colour of hope. See About Me for more info.